Funny that you call me a redneck lol, I'm as Latino as you are. But oh well, some people can't take jokes in this forum. Congratulations on the win btw, well deserved. Ill be rooting for you guys in the finals
If you look at the USA's results, from 1994 onwards I'd say they've looked worthy of a place at the event pretty much every time. 1990 was the last time they looked like a bunch of no hopers. Here are their results from the last 2 world cups: BEAT Ghana, Algeria DRAW Portugal, USA, Slovenia LOST Germany, Belgium, Ghana All the defeats were by one goal, very tight, and Ghana in 2010 was an awesome team. If the USA were not worthy of qualifying for the world cup, they would be getting worse results. The US is on average a L16 team at the world cup which is a similar result to what you would expect for a team qualifying say 4th out of South America. So, from that, you would have to give the USA their due and say they are probably good enough to qualify. I actually think they would struggle a little if thrown randomly into South America (altitude, hostile crowds nearer the pitch, different foods; meanwhile the South Americans would feel no such pressure playing them in air conditioned 70,000 stadia with the crowd 20 metres from the pitch) and I think they might finish 6th or 7th. However, why should it matter whether they could qualify if they had to play all their matches in an alien environment. It's not really relevant. I do think when we look at 3.5 places for CONCACAF and 4.5 places for CONMEBOL though...hmm...it should be 5.5 for CONMEBOL really. CONCACAF deserves 3.5 though, or at least 3, and Costa Rica has shown over the years that they can get results as well. And it's fair to allow other teams like Jamaica a chance to go to the world up now and then, and even they weren't losing 6-0 or anything. So 3.5 looks right.
The only way we will know is if we combine the confederations. We'd be bringing 3.5 (!) bids with us. Would SA be able to steal one bid a year? Likely. Multiple? Not so much.
3 for CONCACAF and 6 for CONMEBOL or 3.5 5.5 and play eachother for the other one, wich is saying the same basically
CONCACAF and CONMEBOL performed better in 2014 at the World Cup than European countries did at the Group Stage.
I think we deserve 6 spots. FIFA likes to advertise the World Cup as "the best teams in the world" when we all know its really just the best teams per continent. If it was the best teams in the world, we'd have at least 1 or 2 more CONMEBOL spots and even a few more UEFA spots. I said this earlier, but think of it this way: One of Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, or Ecuador will miss out on the World Cup.
Chile, Brasil and Colombia are currently 4,5,6 in CONMEBOL qualys right now. We are talking Chile here, the team that destroyed CONCACAF number 1 team is now in a struggling position to qualify. Colombia, semifinalist (at least) of the Copa, struggling Brasil! The biggest champions in the history of soccer, struggling to qualify People need to understand how hard CONMEBOL qualys are
Well you guys might get 6 and CONCACAF 4 if we bump up to 40 teams. Other than that I don't see it being changed in the near future. I'm all about joining both Confederations, it would help CONCACAF teams by exposing them to a higher level of Football.
Thats why i always say USA and Mexico wouldnt qualify, its not that they are bad teams (despite this last showings) is that even freacking Germany would have a hard team qualifying for CONMEBOL. Actually, all top euro teams will struggle to qualify, just like Argentina, Chile, Brasil or Uruguay struggle. Mexico and Usa wouldnt ever qualify
Ok, that's a Bit too much... you are basically Saying that 80 percent of your confederation should be entitled to go to the World Cup. You guys are good, but not that good. 6 is a fair number IMO
And, even if you are working your ass off to beat very hard teams,.next thing you know you get shipped to LA PAZ or QUITO at 3,000 meters high in where you cant even breath (when i was in Cusco, that is about the same height, i couldnt barely walk) and get destroyed by Ecuador or Bolivia And you are back in a struggling position
Im saying it would never happen, and it wouldnt probably be fair since it would take a lot.of competition from CONMEBOL qualys. But, as far as quality: is the 8th CONMEBOL team better than MANY teams that get to go to the WCA from other confederations? Heck yeah!
I agree, but honestly the world cup is more than just having the best teams in the world playing together. It is a cultural event and it brings people together from all over the world, therefore it makes sense that every region of the world should be represented by their strongest teams. If we were to have the best 32 teams regardless of where they are from the WC would look exactly the same every time ( Strong showing from S America and Europe, with 4 or 5 exceptions)
I think USA ended up giving too much respect to argentina, that first goal, the keeper didnt even put pressure on el pocho. It was US lack of experience in this instances that ended up being the biggest factor as I pointed out before. USA in my opinion have a very good team, if they had more experience in this instances the game would be much more closer. Venezuela an inferior team than USA for example put up a better fight to Argentina, because Venezuela has met Argentina in official games lots of time before, so they have that Experience that USA lacks (they only get it every 4 years in world cup, while Venezuela for example in Qualifiers and Copa America)
The Venezuela of the tournament is a much different side that the one we've seen in the qualifiers however.
The real problem is that Argentina played a team of players used to playing in high quality, high pressure, and highly technical games, most of them in the prime of their career. The US maybe had Fabian Johnson who fits the description above. All the other stuff like tactics are secondary...
Conmebol hardly deserves 8 teams. The 7th and 8th teams in Conmebol, whether it's Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, or Paraguay in a bad year, or whoever, would struggle at the world cup in getting out of the group stages or even winning any matches at all. In my opinion teams like USA, Costa Rica, South Korea, Japan, and top African teams like Ghana and Algeria, have been slightly better in recent years than the likes of Peru and Bolivia. I think they get the world cup qualifying spot on. Or at least they would if they let one more conmebol team in. Let's not get carried away about how awesome CONMEBOL is. If it was so awesome we wouldn't have Europe finished 1st and 3rd in the South American world cup, 1st, 2nd and 3rd in South Africa, and all four semi finalists in 2006. 2002 Uruguay, Argentina and Ecuador all exited at the group stage. 2006 saw Paraguay exit at the group stage, while Ecuador exited at the L16. Uruguay lost to Australia in the play off. Admittedly a good Australia side that was unlucky to lose to eventual champions Italy on a dodgy penalty. 2010 was a good year for CONMEBOL's strength in depth, with 4 of their 5 making it the quarter finals and it couldn't possibly have been 5 - Chile lost to Brazil in the L16. (Well, it might have been technically possible had Chile beat Spain and topped the group.) However, from the QF on, Europeans dominated. 2014 Ecuador went out at the group stage (behind 2 Europeans, France and Switzerland). 4 of the 5 that got through to the L16 ended up in the same quarter of the draw, knocking each other out, so little to read into that.